The Charles Summer School1201 Seventeenth Street, N. W. (at M)

October speaker David Catania is very much in the headline category of taxpayer and
neighborhood-friendly councilmember. Elected in late 1997 in a special election, he
handily won reelection in 1998. He is widely regarded as a non-nonsense policy maker who
has repeatedly demonstrated that he is not afraid to take on the status quo. Hues chairman
of the Local and Regis Affairs Committee which has oversight responsibility for the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Advisory Neighborhood Commissions
(ANCs) and regional transportation authorities. He sits as a member on the Human Services,
Government Operations, and Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Committees of the city council.

Councilman Catania is well known for being accessible to citizens and for laying the
facts on the line, whether they concern the city government, the city-federal relationship
or more local affairs. He has one of the best and most responsive staffs at the council.
A first: In the course of talks with Federation delegates from communities impacted by
large institutions concerning problems and ramifications of the latter at the zoning
agencies, Mr. Catania made the very original offer to furnish space in his office for a
Federation representative. That person would have the specific task of keeping up with
zoning/ campus plan matters within the council office framework, presumably for mutual
benefit. To date, we have not detailed a person to the Catania office, due to the constant
press of business related to the Zoning Commission and the Office of Planning's activities
on the overhaul of an important part of the zoning regulations. Nevertheless, an offer of
integrated-Federation participation in a city council office is appreciated and will be
acted upon down the line. Regarding the evolving ideological direction of the Council, Mr.
Catania is squarely in the column of active taxpayer-neighborhood supporters. Some hope is
being expressed that he will take the lead in helping and orienting de facto
councilman-elect Adrian Fenty when he (likely) assumes office in January 2001. Other
council members widely regarded as most neighborhood friendly are: Phil Mendelson, Sharon
Ambrose, Cathy Paterson, Jim Graham, Jack Evans, and Carol Schwartz.

In June 2000, D.C. voters passed a referendum creating a new school board structure
consisting of five elected and four appointed members. In November, citizens will elect a
president and four special district members to the board.

The mayor is searching for quality candidates to serve as appointed members of the
board. Legislation states that "Members appointed by the mayor shall be District
residents. The persons appointed by the mayor shall have competencies in education,
finance, or business management." Potential candidates should have a strong
commitment to public education and have a willingness to work cooperatively with other
team members.

Nominations (including self nominations) should be forwarded to the Office of Policy
and Evaluation, for the attention of Michele Seligman, 441 4th Street, Suite 920S,
Washington, DC 20001 or faxed to 727-3765 or e-mailed to mseligman-eomn@dcgov.org. Questions can be
answered at 727-6979.

Some delegates may wish to consider volunteering for this unpaid but important work
within the city government. If the D.C. school system ever needed good heads and hearts at
the helm, that time is now. And who better to serve in these school board positions than
committed civic leaders, especially those with education backgrounds or interests?

In August-September, the city government, due to Congressional review, updated the
city's expiring Alcoholic Beverage Control Act to provide the following:

"(1) No person shall falsely represent his or her age, or possess or present as
proof of age an identification document which is in any way fraudulent, for the purpose of
procuring or consuming an alcoholic beverage in the District."

"(2) No person shall present a fraudulent identification document for the purpose
of entering a class C or licensed ABC establishment in the District."

"(3) A section requiring presentation of a valid "government" ID, with
name, date of birth, signature and photograph.

"(d) (1) As an alternative sanction to the misdemeanor penalties provided in
subsection (b-1) of this section, a person who violates subsection (b) (1) or (b) (2) of
this section shall be subject to the following civil penalties:

(A) Upon the first violation, a penalty of $300;

(B) Upon the second violation, a penalty of $600; and

(C) Upon the third and subsequent violations, a penalty of $1,000 and suspension of his
or her driving privileges in the District for one year."

(C) Upon the third and subsequent violations, a penalty of $1,000 and suspension of his
or her driving privileges in the District for one year."

In September the mayor issued an order to the Director of the Department of Motor
Vehicles to:

Issue a new standard license plate that will bear the words "Taxation Without
Representation:"

Provide District residents with the opportunity to exchange, at cost, their current
license plates for the newly issued one; and

Offer individuals the option to receive and display license plates without the phrase
"Taxation Without Representation". These persons will be issued "license
plates of the size, color, design and material prescribed by the Director."

The Federation's Consortium of Impacted Communities is actively preparing for follow-up
testimony at the Zoning Commission and other related work, in connection with the ongoing
city overhaul of the zoning regulations for campus plans. The Federation coordinated
Consortium associations effective presentations on July 27, and is organizing association
collaboration for a November 16 hearing at the Zoning Commission restricted to whether
campus plan processing responsibility should be transferred from the Board of Zoning
Adjustment (BZA) to the Zoning Commission.

The bottom line is yes, because the BZA is essentially intended to deal with smaller,
single-track review projects and jobs and the Zoning Commission is better able to deal
effectively with large Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) and similar vast, mufti-year
university campus plans. More hearings and consultations will be scheduled that require
community participation, and we will be there.

The Federation s second major area being addressed in the coming years) is land use in
residential areas and the DCRA's deficient regulation of this. This will be a more
ramified problem than even the heretofore dysfunctional campus plan oversight and permit
process. In the case of the latter, a revivified professional Office of Planning has
resumed its proper role in definition and professional input in a problem area and will
probably reach positive solutions. In the case of the DCRA, however, tasked with
inspection, enforcement, some zoning concerns and de facto rules interpretation,
collaboration on problem solving will be a more difficult and protracted matter.

We will need: (1) the mayor's support (as in the case of the campus plan set of
problems), (2) collaboration with the Office of Planning, (3) a clear delineation of the
problem and solutions from a community perspective, and (4) a clear plan to emphasize for
achieving needed community relief. There is no good substitute for mayoral support,
particularly as we interface with the new director of the DCRA.

On another matter, we have the first preliminary, likely pledge of $1,000 for the
Federation's developing Legal Aid Foundation. The plan is to have an initial modest
$10,000 as seed capital for Foundation activities.

Reportedly sensing that the decades-long party at the Board of Zoning Adjustment may be
over, three universities have submitted what can only be called last-ditch, exaggeratedly
ambitious and impacting ten-year campus plans to the agency. The plan submissions follow
protracted unsuccessful negotiations between host communities and universities, both
without and with Office of Planning urged independent conciliation officers. The feeling
is that the rush to filing is due to the imminent overhaul of the zoning regulations that
govern processing of institutional and campus plans, and that the coordinator of the
universities wants to get X number of Y2K campus plans in under the wire.

As matters stand now, current projections are for the George Washington and Georgetown
10-year campus plan submissions to be processed under the old, toothless and ineptly
applied zoning regulations for campus plans. Reportedly, starting with American
University, new campus plan submissions will be processed under upcoming new regulations.

This is unfair and not right. The current volunteer appointive BZA contains two
community oriented board members and two traditional members, among others. Prospective
BZA performances having to do with the GWU and GU 10-year campus plan projections are
unpredictable at best, if current indications mean anything. The bottom line is that the
dozen already badly impacted communities that adjoin the two universities can slip further
into destabilization and taxpayer flight, if the large enrollment increases and other
expansion being requested should slip through an unreflecting BZA (or Zoning Commission)
under present rules.

The George Washington campus plan case atmospherics and dangers are aptly parodied by
Professor Sol Shalit in the October 19 Washington Post. But there are informed readers'
tears behind the wry laughter provoked. The Federation is struggling to help keep the
campus plan regulations overhaul project on track. But a great deal of praying is going
on, hoping that the ongoing combined efforts of the professional Office of Planning and of
the volunteer nonprofessional zoning agencies will not allow major anomalies to slip
through the process.

We will have a representative of citizen opponents of the erection of a major,
oversized telecommunications tower at the October assembly. In response to Ward 3 taxbase
neighborhoods, the city government advised the American Tower Systems Co. that
construction activities must halt. The firm is threatening to sue the city for
"hundreds of millions of dollars" for revoking its permits. Citizens are
reportedly alleging irregularities up and down the line, and are decrying the erection of
an exaggerated structure in the Wisconsin Avenue-Brandywine Street area. Irregularities by
both the city and the developer will likely be asserted, with a possible countersuit by
the city (as in the case of the Georgetown University Commercial power plant case several
years ago) as matters progress.

It will be interesting to hear directly about citizen concerns, with a view to perhaps
scheduling a future presentation by both sides of the controversy.

On September 25 the Federal City Council unveiled a major study, "America's Main
Street: The Case for Reopening Pennsylvania Avenue." The study, prepared by the Rand
Corporation and others, cost a reported $100,000 and is a survey and assessment of the
five-year-old closure of the avenue. Delegates will recall that the Federal City Council
is a private organization comprising 206 business, university, law firm and other
executives, and is a significant voice (usually behind the scenes) in District affairs.
The report comes as a welcome surprise, as reopening the avenue has been a major project
of the Federation for some time. Credit where credit is due, the first call for reopening
came from the Association of Oldest Inhabitants.

Former Senator Bob Dole, president of the council, notes that "The closed section
of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House not only symbolizes giving in to our
fear or terrorism, but it has resulted in literally cutting in half the downtown of the
nations capital. The proposal we are releasing today is measured and reasonable. It
mitigates the risk to the president, his family and the White House staff while
recognizing that fundamental American values, such as openness and accessibility, must not
be sacrificed for the sake of security." Readers of the report will find it as
Senator Dole states, and in well-researched and convincing detail. It was developed by a
task force of prominent transportation, architectural, and security consultants.

The proposal calls for changing the physical configuration of Pennsylvania Avenue
between 15th and 17th Streets, N. W. by narrowing the roadway to four traffic lanes (from
six), and altering the east-west alignment by curving a portion of the Avenue outward away
from the White House, affording another 50 feet of stand-off distance from the executive
complex. Trucks, buses, and other large vehicles would be barred from avenue use, this
enforced by new pedestrian bridges with 7.5 foot clearances and manned security kiosks,
inter alia.

A limited number of copies of the Rand report are on the documents table, on a
first-come first-served basis.

As the reform city government gradually computerizes the city agencies, the Office of
Zoning, which could do no less, announced that it is Now On Line. The OZ is basically the
staffing backup for both the Board of Zoning Adjustment and the Zoning Commission. The OZ
message is:

Note: For all the critiques, good and bad, of the zoning agencies, the zoning staff is
unfailingly helpful to customers and interested parties, and is very helpful in securing
copies of zoning affairs documents.

Washington has for the better part of a year had noise control act provisions that
allow police to make assessments on the spot and cite out-of-compliance noise generators.
The standard methodology is: first police visit in response to complaints - a warning,
second visit - a more serious warning, unless matters are already out of hand, and third
visit - a $300 citation ticket and possible arrests. This modus operandi has gone far
toward improving quality of life in noise impacted neighborhoods.

Instructively, now a new law has gone into effect in Maryland changing playing a car
stereo too loudly from a civil to a criminal charge. The new penalty will be treated as a
criminal misdemeanor traffic violation, and will allow violators to pay a fine without a
court appearance, if desired. Too loud is defined as noise that can be heard from 50 feet
away.

For those delegates who may have been out of town or otherwise distracted, the Supreme
Court has just ruled that District residents have no constitutional right to a voting
representative in Congress. The ruling ended a two-year legal struggle by united community
leaders, including a Federation endorsement.

Mayor Williams, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Norton and all thirteen members of the city
council have declared they will continue the fight for genuine voting representation in
the national legislature. They said they will back a vote in Congress or, alternatively, a
suspension of District residents' obligation to pay federal taxes, estimated at $2 billion
annually.

All delegates and other parties who plan to testify at the November 16 Zoning
Commission hearing are requested to call to register immediately. That important hearing
will be concerned solely with the appropriateness of shifting processing of campus plan
matters from the Board of Zoning Adjustment to the Zoning Commission. The Zoning
Commission contact is Ms. Sara Benjamin at 727-5372. We need to make a strong community
statement at this key hearing. Witnesses need not be only from communities directly
impacted by universities or other large institutions or corporations.

Dues Time for Membership Year 2000-2001

All constituent associations are reminded that dues for the current membership year are
due. Membership dues of $60 should be sent to Federation Treasurer Dr. Marc Weiss at 426 O
Street, S.W.; Washington, D.C. 20024

Overheard

At a recent Consortium meeting: "The biggest problem for civic meeting attendance
is supper."

The Sumner School has reserved the following dates for the Federations Assembly
meetings. Each will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the School and Museum, which is at 1201
Seventeenth Street, at the corner of M Street, N.W.